To the editor,
It is interesting to read the recent articles/opinions in various farm/community newspapers about the appointment of Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson (PC) as the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, replacing Ernie Hardeman. Just why was this done?
Ms. Thompson does have a rural background and should have knowledge of rural affairs. But is there an underlying reason for this position? Ms. Thompson represents the provincial riding of Huron-Bruce, which includes the community of South Bruce, a prime agricultural area but also one of the proposed sites for a deep geological repository (DGR), the location to bury high level nuclear waste. Ms. Thompson lives in that community on her husband’s 120-year-old family farm.
Is not the Ford Conservative government in favour of nuclear power? If so, is the provincial government promoting this DGR project in an undermining way? Ms. Thompson has been known to say that the DGR is a federal issue, yet the nuclear power industry is under provincial jurisdiction. In 2016, did Ms. Thompson not go on a trip with the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) to France to view a DGR? That DGR today is still not functioning. Is this not being involved with NWMO’s DGR project?
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture has reported that 175 acres of prime agricultural land is lost daily, the equivalent to five family farms a week. This proposed DGR requires at least 1,500 acres; in South Bruce, the proposed site is on farmland. As Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, is Ms. Thompson going to protect that farmland, like that of her husband’s 120-year-old family farm, or allow South Bruce family farms – some older than her husband’s – to be turned into a high level nuclear waste dump?
Ms. Thompson’s public statement was, “I am humbled to be given this new post and I pledge to Ontario’s agri-food sector and rural communities that I will work hard on their behalf.” The next provincial election takes place in June 2022, the next municipal election in October 2022 and the NWMO will make the DGR site decision in 2023. Is it coincidence that Ms. Thompson was put into this position at a time when her home community is divided over a very controversial situation? Is Ms. Thompson going to run on a platform pledging to work hard on saving prime farmland, or on a platform to promote a DGR possibly coming to her home community and losing more prime farmland?
S.A. McDonald
Culross/Teeswater
(South Bruce)
